Who is this [1] Benoit Paire? I saw his match last night and he has an attitude problem. He got upset with a call from the linesman and he 'gave up on a point' by purposely hitting it towards the linesmen in a rally. Even the announcers got on him for that. I had never heard of this guy - yet he was the #1 seed? Where have I been?

econd-seeded American Sam Querrey captured his third title at the Farmers Classic, defeating first-time finalist Ricardas Berankis 6-0, 6-2 on Sunday in Los Angeles. He has now won 13 straight matches at this ATP World Tour 250 tournament.

“I feel like I always play well here,” said Querrey. “I grew up kind of playing around this area and I’m really comfortable out there on the courts. It’s fun to play in front of my friends and family. It all came together this week, and especially today.”

By titling at the second event of the 2012 Emirates Airline US Open Series, the 24 year old moves into a first place tie with countryman and last week's Atlanta champion Andy Roddick atop this summer's Bonus Challenge standings. Querrey won the US Open Series in 2009.

The Southern California native joins four-time champions Andre Agassi and Jimmy Connors as the only players in the Open Era to have won three or more Los Angeles titles. Querrey claimed back-to-back titles in 2009-10, but missed last year's event after undergoing wrist surgery in June.

In his first final appearance since winning the Farmers Classic two years ago, Querrey needed a mere 18 minutes to wrap up the first set. He won the first nine games of the match, facing down double break point at 2-0 in the second set, before Berankis managed to get on the scoreboard. Querrey broke his 141st-ranked opponent for a fifth time to clinch the victory after 51 minutes.

Querrey is projected to move 20 spots in the South African Airways ATP Rankings to No. 37 with his victory. He improves to a 7-5 mark in ATP World Tour finals and to an 18-15 season record.

“I’m hoping I can just keep this up and play well the entire summer and keep going,” he said. “I’ve got Washington D.C. next week, so I’m just trying to continue to ride the train and hopefully play well all the way through the US Open.

“I’d love to be seeded at the Open, that’s one of my goals. I’m going to be pretty close after this week so hopefully with a few more good weeks I can make it into the Top 32 and be seeded there. And I’d love to get back into the Top 20, where I was a year-and-a-half ago, so that’s my big goal right now.”

Berankis, the first Lithuanian-born player to reach an ATP World Tour final, became the 11th different first-time title hopeful to lose in a title match this season.

Prior to qualifying for the BB&T Atlanta Open last week, the 22 year old had not played a tour-level match in nearly a year. He had been sidelined with a pelvis stress fracture for four months before coming back on the Challenge circuit.

2012 Emirates Airline US Open Series Bonus Challenge StandingsThrough Sunday, 29 July 2012

Belgian Xavier Malisse successfully defended his doubles title at the Farmers Classic, teaming up with countryman Ruben Bemelmans for a 7-6(5), 4-6, 10-7 victory over third-seeded Brits Jamie Delgado and Ken Skupski in Los Angeles.

Malisse had won the doubles title at this ATP World Tour 250 tournament last year with Bahamian Mark Knowles, and was playing with Bemelmans for the first time in tour-level competition this week.

They dropped serve once and were unable to capitalise on their three break opportunities against the Brits in the Sunday afternoon final, but prevailed in the Match Tie-break after one hour and 31 minutes.

“I think we played well,” said Malisse. “We served really well. I think we never got into big trouble on our serves. I didn’t put many returns in play today, but Ruben played well and had great shots on the important points.”

Bemelmans, 24, was making his debut appearance in an ATP World Tour final while the 32-year-old Malisse improved to an 8-4 record in title matches. He was a runner-up last week at the BB&T Atlanta Open (w/Russell).

Logged

Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble.